FanLib Shutting Down

FanLib.com was founded on the belief that fan creativity is a true art form that deserves a first-rate showcase for cultivation and celebration. Over the course of the past fifteen months, you have triumphantly confirmed this notion with an astonishing display of talent, enthusiasm, imagination and camaraderie.

So, it is especially difficult to announce that FanLib.com will shut down on Monday, August 4, 2008.

Edit: There are rumors that Disney purchased FanLib, and is shutting down the fanfiction archive portion because it would be a "liability." I doubt the rumor -- if FanLib sold their business at a profit, they would be happy to publicize that fact. There is also no reason for Disney to keep quiet about it.

Edit: Because the "FanLib is shutting down" announcement briefly disappeared due to what seems to have been a coding fuck up, I'm putting the full text of the announcement here behind a cut.

Dear Friends,

FanLib.com was founded on the belief that fan creativity is a true art form that deserves a first-rate showcase for cultivation and celebration. Over the course of the past fifteen months, you have triumphantly confirmed this notion with an astonishing display of talent, enthusiasm, imagination and camaraderie.

So, it is especially difficult to announce that FanLib.com will shut down on Monday, August 4, 2008.

While individual sites may come and go, fan creativity can never be stopped. The inspiration behind FanLib.com will continue to drive legions of passionate fans to find and make new destinations at which to thrive. With that in mind, please consider these other creative communities that welcome your participation:

Since many of you may wish to store or transfer your submissions to a new location, a "Download Submissions" link has been added to your My FanLib page. With a single click, you can download a .Zip file containing HTML versions of all your submissions.

All of us here at FanLib.com are tremendously grateful for the opportunity you've given us to serve your community. It's been a real privilege and a lot of fun and we are truly sorry that we are unable to continue. We wish you all the best as you continue to celebrate your favorite fandoms, ignite imaginations, and carry the spirit of this community proudly into the future.

I have not heard any particulars. Bankruptcy, bought out and carved up... the possibilities are many.

I don't know if it is only FanLib the fic archive shutting down, or if it is the entire thing, including the writing contest "my2centences" stuff -- which I imagine has been paying the bills. Or almost paying the bills.

I can't say this is a happy event: all the folks who went to FanLib because the Intarweb was too mean are going to come back.

(I really need to update this icon to say "You write. We make money. Not!")

I hate to find joy in another's sorrow, I really do. It feels bad to rejoice over the demise of Fanlib... but yeah, I totally did a happy dance when I read this post.

Despite Fanlib's short life span, it has succeeded in having a huge lasting impact on fandom. If not for Fanlib, then the OTW project would not have been started. And if not for OTW and whatever displeasure partly_bouncy took from it, we would not have the current Partly_Bouncy/Laura Hale kerfuffle. A year later Fanlib is dead, but the controversy it created lives on.

Interestingly enough I got into an argument with partly_bouncy about Fanlib over a year ago. Back then I respectfully defended my opinion with deference to the fact that she was a respected site admin with archiving experience. When I think back on it now, I should have realized something was fishy with how adamant her dislike of OTW was. She didn't just dislike it. She loathed it for reasons she never fully explained.

I am willing to post our argument in full if anyone is interested in reading it. It took place on Fanthropology on 5/24/2007 but I saved all the comments in my email.

Since I don't want to single out any specific comments, I've gotta say I love the cackling and laughing at other people's misery. And I really love how you rejoyce that not everyone immediately take to a new, and for them, completely foreign archive experience. They must be really dumb not to immediately understand everything about a site they just set foot on, cause we all know fanfiction.net is so easy that a blind two year old can find their way around it with their feet *rolls eyes*.

And, of course, one angry, overdone comment by an upset teenager, really makes a statement for all 25,000 members posting at the site. One comment alone is enough to evaporate any sympathy that many people who found a home on FanLib don't know where to go. I should begin to assume single standing comments on LJ repressents all the users of the site.

It is not about finding some other place to archive our stuff. That is not the problem at all. Incredible as this sound, many of us have our stuff posted at other places as well. What most of us are mourning is the community that we created over there is in danger.

Oh, and how much I love our nicknames here; dupes. Because, of course, none of us read any of the anti-comments posted all over the web and God forbids, made up our own opinion about the site. As much as this sudden announcement sucks, and no matter how much, I personally, feel screwed over by this sudden development, I am happy we got that year at FanLib. Corporation or not, we, the users, made a very unique community, where it was all about the writing, not so much about the fandoms or pairings or genres. We opened each other up to reading outside our comfort zones and it was an incredible experience to see other members go from reading your story and commenting on it despite not having a clue about the fandom, to suddenly be a fan of the fandom. Not in any of the other communities I've belonged to have I ever gotten to see that.

I have nothing against LJ, it just wasn't anything for me. I like fanfiction.net okay because that's where the majority of my readers resides and I am used to the site. And I have been member of several fandom specific sites. But the problem is that most archiving sites around are very clique based. It's all divided into fandoms and even further divided into pairings. We stay within this shell with other likeminded people. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with staying with your own. But I, personally, felt I got more out of a community where I got input from people who didn't know the characters as well as people who did. Because it helps you focus on other aspects of your writing, on other ways of improving, of experimenting.

That is why I am upset about FanLib closing. Because we stand a chance of losing that community. I am pissed off at FanLib for not offering us any form for explanation on what happened, but the real thing I am upset about is the possibility to lose what has become a real home for me on the web.

As for this notion of LJ being demonized on FanLib. I would turn tables and say that anyone joining FanLib was as demonized on LJ, if not more, than LJ was on the FanLib forums.

I don't defend LiveJournal in comparison to FanLib. Neither have been friends to fandom.

I agree that characterizing participants at FanLib as dupes is harsh, but, since this community was created in May of 2007, members have been predicting that FanLib would fail.

The founders of FanLib repeatedly demonstrated no understanding of online culture, or of fanfiction communities, so it was inevitable that FanLib would croak once they ran out of their three million dollars in venture capital. That view was held by many, not just a few people at LiveJournal: academics such as Henry Jenkins, and Internet culture gurus Teresa and Patrick Hayden of Making Light.

I just posted a summary (http://stewardess.livejournal.com/291549.html) listing some of FanLib's worst messes, which may best explain why many considered FanLib's days to be numbered.

FanLib's members were fooled into thinking FanLib could make a go of it. I am sorry that your community was one of FanLib's victims.